Back to the UK with Grimaldi.

We are now on board the Grimaldi ship
Repubblica Argentina en-route between Buenos Aires (Argentina) and
Tilbury (U.K.) via Montevideo, Paranagua, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Dakar, Emden
and Hamburg. A journey that should take 24 days.

In accordance with our
much changed instructions we (that is
Mog, one German Scam and one French Land-Rover)
arrived at the port gates at 10:45 (from where we could still see our
car park home of two weeks). At 11:15 with no sign
of Mr. Pablo Orsini we called his mobile phone. No answer. So we called Ms.
Inés Charpentier at J. Turner & Co. (the Grimaldi agent in BA). We
were told that Mr. Orsini was on his way.

At about 11:45 a car drove past us into the port gates and Mr.
Orsini (we assume it was Mr. Orsini, he never introduced himself) wound down
his window and shouted "Vamos!".

We followed his car in convoy to the first security barrier within
the port, where he stopped and walked back to each vehicle and shouted
"Pasporte!" We complied. After several minutes
and another "Vamos!" we drove thru the port to
customs.

Here Mr. Orsini demanded our
"Documento!". We and the German presented only
our passports and our Carnet de Passage*. The French couple
however also presented a vehicle document they received when they last entered
Argentina. This was a mistake, as Mr. Orsini then returned their
Carnet and passed the remaining documents to Argentine
customs.

This all took place
standing in the rain outside the customs office. Within a few seconds customs
had stamped our and the German Carnets (without even checking the
vehicle registration numbers, let alone the chassis numbers). Not surprisingly
the French couple re-presented their Carnet and asked for it to be
stamped too.

Argentine customs refused to stamp the French Carnet out of
Argentina. Mr. Orsini supported this decision and explained to the French (in a
mixture of English and Spanish) that the other vehicle document they had
presented was all that he and Argentine customs required for us to board our
ship. Yes, he understood that they needed their Carnet signed out
of Argentina and they might loose a lot of money, but, by implication, that was
not his problem! Only after 15 minutes of heated argument was the French
Carnet finally stamped out of Argentina.

After a perfunctory customs search by a couple of dogs we drove to
the ship. Because other cargo was being loaded we were told to leave our
vehicles on the quay side and board the ship. After several hours we returned
to drive our vehicles onto the ship (Rant: Why is that people
charged with helping you park on a ship or in a car park always give flamboyant
but ambiguous hand signals indicating the direction they think you should turn
the wheel rather than show you clearly where and in what orientation you are
required to park? /Rant)

Repubblica Argentina is a combined RoRo and container
ship with cabin space (I believe) for 12 passengers. The vehicle loading deck
(above) takes vehicles up to six metres in height and is, at the moment, nearly
empty apart from a few agricultural machines and a scattering of containers.
The upper decks get progressively lower with the top vehicle deck being
suitable only for cars and SUVs. When we parked there were already about six
campervans on the ramp (above left).

We have had conflicting reports about life aboard a
Grimaldi ship. Mick reported that the food on his ship was poor,
that there was no alcohol, no coffee after breakfast, no chairs on deck and
that he was bored out of his mind. Others have reported having a great
time.

Our ship is better than Mick's. Our cabin (top, left above) is
fine, if not exactly cozy. There is a "desk" but I didn't find it until it was
pointed out on day three (the very thin top "draw" of the chest of draws is a
desk surface). There is a lounge (top right) that we share with the ship's
officers (they never use it). We also share the dining room (bottom, right)
with them.

Although there are notices (in Italian and English) prohibiting
the possession and use of alcohol, wine is served with both lunch and dinner.
The "no smoking" signs in the lounge and dinning room are ignored by the crew
and there are ash trays on the tables.

In the lounge there is a DVD player and a video tape player, as
well as a couple of hundred books (about 28% English, 31% German and the rest
Italian. I know I sorted them by language.). All the videos on our ship are in
Italian. The only two DVDs are in German (only!).

The following two paragraphs (in green) are an unsolicited and
off-topic advertisement for a book intended to convert people of a religious
persuasion to Atheism. Do not read them, or the book, if you are easily
offended.

I wish to thank whoever left a copy of Richard Dawkins' book
The God Delusion on board the Repubblica Argentina.
It is an excellent book that I planned to buy when I got to the UK (I will
anyway). Recommended! See
www.richarddawkins.net for
details.

I doubt it is a standard issue book on all Grimaldi ships so I
suggest you buy your own copy to read on board. For balance you can also buy
The Dawkins Delusion published, I think, by SPCK if you need
further convincing.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that there was a gym on
board. That is a considerable exaggeration but there is a sort of games room
(bottom, left) with video games, an exercise bicycle and table-tennis (bring
you own balls!). There is also a launderette (centre, right).

The food so far has been better and more varied than expected.
Today's lunch and dinner menus are below.

Pranzo.

11:00 ZT - 12:00 ZT.

Risotto al curry.(Rice to
curry)

Fegalto alla persiana(Liver)

Salsiccie arrostite.(Sausage
roasting)

Cenna.

18:00 ZT - 19:00/20:00 ZT.

Pasta e lenticchei.(Pasta with
lentils)

Zucchine ripiene.(Backfilling
vegetable)

Carne alla pizzaiola.(Steek to
tomato sauce)

As for the degree of boredom, it remains to be seen. Luckily we
bought lots of English language books in BA, we have found a stray table-tennis
ball, and the French couple have a dozen multilingual DVDs.

* As I'm sure you know a Carnet is a
customs guarantee document that makes temporarily importing a vehicle easier
and faster. To get one you deposit three times the value of
your vehicle (for South America) and provided it is stamped
out of every country it is stamped into you
get your money back.)